Monday, 14 April 2014

The Island of Dr Moreau - H G Wells

The Island
of Dr Moreau is only a short novelette, but, like most of H G Wells’ stories,
is thought-provoking and has a lot to say about human nature meeting scientific
progress.

The
narrator, Edward Prendick, is marooned on an island – human population two: Dr
Moreau, whose controversial work got him exiled from England, and his
assistant, Montgomery. He soon discovers that Moreau is conducting experiments
on animals to transform them into a hideous semblance of humanity. He moulds them,
both in body and mind, into disfigured creatures which are not quite animal and
not quite human.

This being H
G Wells, Dr Moreau’s work backfires, resulting in disaster. We return to London
with Prendick, who is a changed man, unable to see anything other than beastly
echoes in his fellow humans.

It’s told in
Wells’ usual matter-of-fact, documentary style, which lends a solidity and a
sense of uneasy realism to the horrors described. The narrator’s
disillusionment with humanity has an echo of Gulliver’s Travels, although for
different reasons.

A good short
tale to dip into, which left me mulling over ideas for some time afterwards.